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JOURNEY · DETAIL
Ji Qi: From Trip.com, Home Inn, and Hanting to H World Group, four IPOs across three ventures
Founded: Ji Qi · H World Group
JOURNEY
Key Fields
FIELD STAMPSIndustryReal Estate / Housing
RegionChina
ScaleGiant
ChannelOffline
Origin
Ji Qi grew up in a rural area of Nantong, Jiangsu, and co-founded Trip.com with James Liang, Neil Shen, and Fan Min. During his time at Trip.com, he identified a massive demand for budget hotels, noting a lack of standardized, branded, low-cost accommodation in the market. He decided to leave Trip.com to enter the hotel industry. In 2002, he founded Home Inn, applying a franchise-based chain model to budget hotels, combining Trip.com's internet traffic logic with offline standardized operations.
Milestones
1999
Inception PMF
In 1999, Ji Qi co-founded Trip.com with James Liang, Neil Shen, and Fan Min, serving as its first CEO. Trip.com initially focused on hotel bookings. Through operations, Ji Qi discovered a significant unmet demand for low-cost, standardized accommodation, which became the direct catalyst for his later entry into physical hotel operations.
2002
Expansion Growth
Ji Qi founded Home Inn, positioning it as a budget hotel chain featuring standardized rooms, a unified brand, and a central reservation system. The first store opened in Beijing in 2002, quickly validating the expansion path of combining franchising with direct operations. Home Inn later listed on NASDAQ in 2006, becoming a landmark case for Chinese hotel companies listing overseas.
2005
Turning Point Inflection
Before Home Inn's IPO, Ji Qi was forced to leave due to disagreements with investors and the management team regarding the company's direction. This event was a major turning point in his entrepreneurial journey. Rather than dwelling on Home Inn's success, he started over with a deeper understanding of the budget hotel sector, which led him to prioritize founder control and long-term strategic stability in his future ventures.
2005
Second Venture PMF
In 2005, Ji Qi founded Hanting Hotel, positioning it as a mid-range budget hotel brand emphasizing better sleep, bathing, and internet experiences. Hanting adopted a hybrid model of direct and franchise operations from the start, reducing unit costs through standardized products and centralized procurement. The early stages were not smooth, with initial site selection and franchise management issues, but Ji Qi quickly adjusted standards to emphasize product consistency and franchisee vetting.
2010
IPO Growth
In 2010, Hanting Hotel listed on NASDAQ under the name H World Group (stock code: HTHT). At the time of the IPO, H World already operated hundreds of hotels with a growing proportion of franchises. Post-IPO, the company continued to expand through a multi-brand strategy, forming a portfolio covering various price points—including Hanting, All Seasons, and Orange Hotel—transitioning from a single-brand budget hotel company to a comprehensive hotel management platform.
2020
Secondary Listing Growth
H World Group completed a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with an issue price of HK$297, with its market cap exceeding HK$100 billion on the first day. The prospectus showed that as of June 30, 2020, H World operated over 6,000 hotels globally, with franchises and licensed hotels accounting for over 90%. The asset-light franchise model became the core of its revenue structure, with the company relying increasingly on management fees, franchise fees, and supply chain services.
2020
Pressure and Recovery Inflection
The pandemic severely impacted the hotel industry, leading to a significant net loss for H World in 2020. Ji Qi pushed for organizational streamlining, cost control, and fee waivers for franchisees while continuing to expand into lower-tier markets. After 2023, travel demand recovered, leading to a rebound in occupancy rates and ADR, improving franchisee ROI expectations. This period validated the resilience of the asset-light model during industry troughs while exposing the vulnerability of revenue volatility tied to franchise and management fees during demand contractions; this phase lasted from 2020 to 2023.
Turning Points
- Identified the supply gap in budget hotels at Trip.com and decided to pivot from online booking to offline hotel operations.
- Forced out of Home Inn before its IPO, leading to the founding of Hanting with a stronger product and franchise management logic.
- Transitioned from a single brand to a multi-brand platform under H World after Hanting's IPO, with franchise ratios exceeding 90%.
- Secondary listing on the HKEX in 2020 with a market cap over HK$100 billion, cementing the asset-light franchise model as the core narrative.
- Post-pandemic organizational streamlining and expansion into lower-tier markets, driving the recovery of occupancy rates and RevPAR.
Failures & Pitfalls
- Forced out of Home Inn due to internal power struggles before the IPO, missing out on personally reaping the capital gains.
- Early franchise standards at Hanting were lax, leading to poor product and service consistency, requiring a major overhaul of the franchisee system.
- Sharp decline in occupancy rates for both direct and franchise stores during the early pandemic, resulting in significant net losses in 2020.
- Ji Qi's aggressive management style during the Home Inn era caused team friction, serving as a recurring lesson in his entrepreneurial career.
- Extended payback periods for some franchise stores in lower-tier markets, with ROI falling short of those in top-tier cities.
关键成功要素
- Leveraged traffic insights from Trip.com to identify the supply gap in standardized budget hotels and entered the physical chain market.
- Scaled through an asset-light franchise model, replacing capital-intensive store opening costs with management fees and supply chain revenue.
- Built a multi-brand matrix covering budget to mid-to-high-end segments to broaden franchisee choices and customer reach.
- Reduced unit costs and maintained brand consistency through central reservation systems, centralized procurement, and standardized operations.
- Supported rapid expansion through multiple IPOs and capital operations, while using the HKEX secondary listing to enhance recognition among Asian investors.
Lessons
- After identifying a structural industry gap, switching to a scalable business model is more valuable than remaining on the original platform.
- Founder control and long-term strategic direction influence the ability to lead subsequent capitalization milestones.
- Franchising is not just about quantity; standardized operations and franchisee vetting determine long-term brand survival.
- The asset-light model reduces capital consumption during expansion but increases revenue elasticity during downturns, necessitating a buffer for 'winter' periods.
- A multi-brand platform is more resilient to market segmentation than a single brand and attracts a wider variety of franchisees.
Core Data
- 2020 HKEX listing day market cap：Over HK$100 billion (based on public data, not independently verified)
- June 2020 global hotel count：Over 6,000 (based on public data, not independently verified)
- Franchise and licensed hotel ratio：Over 90% (based on public data, not independently verified)
- Hanting US stock ticker：HTHT (based on public data, not independently verified)
- Home Inn US listing year：2006 (based on public data, not independently verified)
- Ji Qi's personal net worth：Approximately 33 billion RMB (based on public data, not independently verified)
- 2020 HKEX issue price：HK$297 (based on public data, not independently verified)
Competitors / Peers
H World's main competitors in the budget and mid-range hotel chain sector include Jin Jiang International, BTG Homeinns, and Atour. Jin Jiang and BTG Homeinns also rely primarily on franchising and M&A for expansion, while Atour enters from the mid-to-high-end segment with an emphasis on lifestyle experiences. H World differentiates itself by building a wider price range through Hanting and All Seasons, and by providing operational capabilities to franchisees through its central reservation system and technology platform, though it still faces competitive pressure from Atour regarding mid-to-high-end brand premiums and unit-level profitability.